Child Tax Credit

As the Superintendent of Denver Public Schools, Michael saw every day how growing up in poverty shapes a child’s future in ways that are deeply unfair. That’s why Michael has been a tireless advocate for expanding the Child Tax Credit, a vital lifeline for families across the country, to make progress toward eliminating childhood poverty in America.

Following his appointment to the Senate, Michael voted in favor of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to increase the Child Tax Credit for low-income families.

He built on these improvements and in 2015 introduced the Child Tax Credit Improvement Act, a bill to update and modernize the Child Tax Credit for middle-class and low-income families. This bill would have increased the credit for families with young children, enabled taxpayers to receive the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit for every dollar earned, and indexed the amount of the credit for inflation, which would have ensured that the credit retained its value over time.

In 2017, Michael introduced the American Family Act to overhaul the existing Child Tax Credit and create a new $300 per-month, per-child credit for children under 6 years of age and a $250 per-month, per-child credit for children 6 to 17 years of age, and for the first time providing low-income families the full credit (also known as “full refundability”) while delivering payments on a monthly basis.

In 2021, Michael worked with the Biden Administration to enact a one-year expansion of the Child Tax Credit – based on his American Family Act – as part of the American Rescue Plan. This expansion cut child poverty nearly in half and hunger for families by a quarter in 2021, benefitted 90 percent of Colorado children, and lifted nearly 3 million children out of poverty nationwide.

Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the United States has the fourth highest child poverty rate in the industrialized world. Michael believes that is unacceptable. Michael continues to work to make the expanded Child Tax Credit permanent, including refusing to enact corporate tax cuts without expanding benefits for working families. Expanding the Child Tax Credit is Michael’s top priority in the upcoming 2025 tax negotiations.

1. It increases the credit’s value to $3,600 per child age 0 to 5 and $3,000 per child age 6 and older, and expands eligibility to families with children age 17.
2. It makes the Child Tax Credit fully refundable and eliminates its minimum earnings requirement. Currently, if you owe little or no federal income tax, you are unable to get the full (or any) credit. The American Family Act expands the credit to all low- and middle-income families who were previously left out.
3. Currently, a family receives the credit once a year. Michael’s American Family Act allows families to receive the credit in advance periodic payments to make ends meet month-to-month.

In 2021, Bennet’s expanded Child Tax Credit cut child poverty nearly in half. Specifically, the expanded Child Tax Credit lifted 5.3 million people, including 2.9 million children, out of poverty. It reduced child poverty rates for nearly 10 million kids and shrank racial disparities.

In Colorado, the expanded Child Tax Credit lifted 57,000 kids out of poverty and benefitted more than 1 million kids statewide, including nearly 350,000 kids who had been left out of the full existing credit.

The Child Tax Credit expansion benefited 96 percent of families with kids—including more than 96 percent of families with kids in Colorado. Nationally, 94 percent of kids living in rural areas benefited, along with 93 percent of kids in Colorado’s rural communities.

The expanded Child Tax Credit was also successful at reducing hunger, with the food insufficiency rate for families with children dropping by a quarter after the first payment in July 2021. Families most commonly used the monthly Child Tax Credit payments for food, essential bills, clothing, housing costs, child care, and school expenses.

The following Colorado organizations have endorsed the American Family Act: Early Learning Ventures, Early Childhood Council Leadership Alliance, Colorado Children’s Campaign, Colorado Fiscal Institute, United for a New Economy, The Bell Policy Center, Stand for Children Colorado, Community Partnership for Child Development, Peak Vista Community Health Centers, Catholic Charities of Central Colorado, Mesa County Partnership for Children and Families, and Family & Intercultural Resource Center

The following organizations have endorsed an expanded Child Tax Credit: Center for American Progress, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Center for Law and Social Policy, Child Care Aware of America, Children’s Defense Fund, Community Change Action, Economic Security Project, First Focus, MomsRising, National Association for the Education of Young Children, National Women’s Law Center, Niskanen Center, Service Employees International Union, Zero to Three, Child Welfare League of America, Public Advocacy for Kids, and Every Child Matters.

Black Women for Wages for Housework, Care Income Now!, Center for the Study of Social Policy, Child Welfare League of America, Children’s Defense Fund, Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Coalition on Human Needs, Common Sense Media, Community Change Action, Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath), Economic Security Project Action, Family Focused Treatment Association, First Focus Campaign for Children, Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), Fuerza, Futures Without Violence, Grace/End Child Poverty California, San Diego for Every Child, Global Women’s Strike, High Ground Institute, Institute On Taxation And Economic Policy (ITEP),The Invisible Americans Podcast: End Child Poverty, Jewish Family Service of San Diego, Just Harvest, Keep Families Afloat, LIFT, Inc., MomsRising, National Association of Counties (NACo), Public Advocacy for Kids, National Diaper Bank Network, National Women’s Law Center, Orange County United Way, Payday Men’s Network, Prevent Child Abuse America, Prosperity Now, Public Advocacy for Kids, Save the Children, School-Based Health Alliance, Texas Kids Can’t Wait, UnidosUS, Women of Color/Global Women’s Strike,Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), John Burton Advocates for Youth and Association of Maternal, Child Health Programs, Parents as Teachers, and ZERO TO THREE.